Working the impossible

“The craft or art of writing is the clumsy attempt to find symbols for the wordlessness. In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable. And sometimes if he is very fortunate and if the time is right, a very little of what he is trying to do trickles through — not ever much. And if a writer is wise enough to know it can’t be done, then he is not a writer at all. A good writer always works at the impossible.”

One Comment on “Working the impossible”

Great book, huh? It really lifts the veil on a great writer’s thought processes. There seems to be a sort of mysticism, even among writers, about how the Big Names actually write, as if they just split their heads open and pull out a masterpiece. But Journal of a Novel counters that notion in a really heartening way.